


)(er Majesty

by prince_doomed



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Sburb/Sgrub Sessions, Battleship Condescension, Caliginous Romance | Kismesis, Empress Feferi Peixes, F/M, Flashbacks, Flushed Romance | Matesprits, Heavy Hope Symbolism, Helmstroll Sollux Captor, M/M, Not Beta Read, Outer Space, POV Eridan Ampora, Pale Romance | Moirallegiance, Stars, Sympathetic Eridan Ampora, Unhealthy Relationships, eridan ampora is not an asshole, just reread by author like ten times
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-24
Updated: 2020-10-24
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:35:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27176630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prince_doomed/pseuds/prince_doomed
Summary: “Eridan Ampora had everything he’d ever wanted.Feferi Peixes had become the ruler of Alternia, he was a commander on the empress’s Battleship Condesenecion, his worst enemy was a helmsman for him to command, and most importantly he was in a redrom with the girl of his dreams.But it didn’t feel right.“
Relationships: Eridan Ampora/Feferi Peixes, Eridan Ampora/Sollux Captor
Kudos: 34





	)(er Majesty

**Author's Note:**

> AU/Hypothetical in which Feferi becomes the new ruler of Alternia, Sollux becomes the helmsman of Battleship Condescension, and Eridan watches everything he’d ever hoped for shatter in front of his eyes. He is the Prince of Hope, after all.

Eridan Ampora had everything he’d ever wanted.

Feferi Peixes had become the ruler of Alternia, he was a commander on the empress’s Battleship Condesenecion, his worst enemy was a helmsman for him to command, and most importantly he was in a redrom with the girl of his dreams. 

But it didn’t feel right. 

_It had begun a few sweeps ago now, with a message on his Trollian, from Feferi of all people. This was strange in that typically she wanted absolutely nothing to do with him, and it was clear that she was his moirail only begrudgingly. But, being entirely head over heels for her, Eridan opened the message immediately upon its arrival._

_CC: T)(e Condesce is dead._

_What?_

_Eridan leaned away from his computer, eyes wide in shock. That couldn’t be right, he would have heard about it, she wouldn’t just die, she’s practically invincible. His desktop pinged with a new notification, and Eridan forced himself to read it again._

_CC: I know you probubbly don’t believe me, it )(asnt been made public yet but_

_CC: I wanted you to know. I didn’t t)(ink it would )(urt. I )(ated w)(at s)(e did but s)(e was still my ancestor._

_CC: Eridan, I’m scared._

_His fingers hovered over the keys. The Condesce was really dead? It didn’t make any sense. But that didn’t matter right now. Feferi was reaching out to him. They were moirails! He had to do something._

_CA: it wwill be okay fef_

_CA: it might not be okay right noww but thats okay too_

_CA: because its gonna get better_

_CC: I know I just_

_CC: I don’t know )(ow to be empress. I just want to swim wit)( my cuttlefish)( forever, and never )(ave to )(urt anyone!_

It was so strange, to think back on that conversation now, when he stood at the bow of the Battleship Condescension, carrying out her orders. What had happened to the terrified girl who got nauseous at the sight of blood? The girl who’s eyes would glow with delight to help a small helpless creature succeed? That was the girl he had fallen in love with, not the woman who stood before him now, eyes alight with maniacal joy as the blood of a lowblood rushed across her trident. 

Kanaya always loved to warn that power could corrupt. She used to say it to Vriska, whenever she would boast of her newest treasure or FLARP victory. Eridan wondered what she’d say now. But he hadn’t heard from Kanaya in a long while, not since he boarded the ship. 

“Eridan,” Feferi snapped, and he flicked to attention and away from his thoughts of a friendship long left by the wayside. 

“Yes, my love?” The words caught in his throat. He’d wanted to say them for so long, but it felt so wrong now, like her trident twisting inside his gut. But she wanted him to say them. 

“Go check on the helmsman would you? I need to know he is keeping in line.” After she said it, Feferi leaned in and kissed him. Her lips still made him melt, no matter how much she changed, the soft feeling of her against him. It was the only hope Eridan had left, that maybe she was still in there, the girl he pitied so much and wished to love so truly. 

_The first time they’d kissed, it had felt like summer rain. They were sitting on the battleship, by a massive window that looked out across empty space. They practically dangled their legs in the ocean of stars, and Eridan swung his back and forth lazily, lost in the curls on Feferi’s hair. It was still so strange, so beautiful to see her beside him. It had only been a little while, since they’d met in person and boarded the battleship, and left their friends behind. Feferi had wept, insistent that they bring them along. But the highbloods would not hear of such things, and so Eridan had held her, pulling her onto the ship behind him, face stoic and turned away from her tears._

_“Do you think they can see us?” She asked softly, and Eridan tilted his head in surprise._

_“No,” Eridan said bluntly, but quickly continued after seeing the pitiable look of dejection that fell over her face “but perhaps they can see that star.” He pointed to a small pinprick of light, one of many in the vast emptiness. “If we are to look it at, perhaps they will too. And then we shall see each other, if not directly.” It was like a line from a poem, and he hardly believed that it was a true solution, but the way her eyes sparkled made him happy to have said it._

_“Eridan?” Feferi said, and he instantly turned to face her fully. “Do you pity me?”_

_His throat felt dry, and his lips parted in shock. He thought she never wanted to speak on the topic. In the end, he could do nothing more than lightly nod._

_“Good.”_

_He barely had time to process those words before her mouth was against his, and he was lost in it all. Her lips were soft and smooth, like melting chocolate, and tasted of salt and the sea, but in a way so pure and warm it was unlike the sea at all. He was dripping with amazement so hot like candle wax, and before long felt himself returning the kiss, desperate and rough as he ran his hands through her curling black hair._

It didn’t feel like that anymore. Now when she kissed him, it felt empty and cold. She still tasted the same, of salt and the sea, but the warmth was gone, it was as though he were being whipped around in a freezing storm, desperate to find the warm tropical beach he once knew. 

Regardless, he had a helmsman to visit. 

Something in his mind whispered to him that this helmsman was once his friend, and he should treat him as such, but Eridan tried to force that thought away, focusing instead on the clicking of his boots as he walked down the halls, and the swaying of his cape behind him. Because he couldn’t face him as anything more than a helmsman. It would hurt too much. 

_They’d first acquired Sol- the helmsman approximately a sweep ago. By that time, Feferi’s eyes had already grown darker, and the light in them had all but vanished._

_They were back on Alternia, for the first time in a while, him at her side but already beginning to feel far away. He would drift away in his thoughts as they walked across the empty land, never quite looking anywhere, only aware of the pressure of the rifle on his back and the cool metal of the rings around his fingers. But she could always bring him back to reality. It took nothing more than the brushing of her fingers against his, before he was looking to her again, hoping that perhaps this time she would look at him with a smile that reached her eyes, and point out a particularly interesting rock, or a flower she wished to take along._

_That was not the case. Instead, she nodded to a group of small round buildings, surrounding by fences and a patrolling blue blood guard. Where was this place, so far out in the middle of nowhere and so empty and abandoned?_

_A sudden crackling burst of red and blue light answered that question for him, and Eridan gasped in surprise. “Helmsman storage blocks,” he breathed out, and Feferi grinned at him._

_“Yes,” she said, the bubble of excitement rising in her voice. It used to make him smile. “And we are here for a new battery!”_

_The blueblood guard yelped in surprise as they approached, bending into a deep bow immediately. “Your Majesty! Commander Ampora!” he squeaked out. “I was not expecting to see important figures such as yourselves visiting so late into the night!”_

_”Yes well,” Feferi said, her voice so bored and uninterested at it all, “do you happen to have a helmsman named So-“_

Eridan pinched his eyes shut, forcing himself out his mind’s wanderings. No. He didn’t want to remember how she’d said his name so blandly. The boy she’d once been so fascinated by, the boy who almost captured her heart. Eridan used to be so jealous of him, always one step ahead, in every regard. 

He wasn’t jealous of him now.

As his hand froze over the small button to open the door to the helmsblock, Eridan tried to focus on what was really there. The fact that the metal walls were intricately lined with rolling waves and swirls, the fact that his chest rose and fell with steady breaths. Not the image of a kid with bony elbows and uneven teeth, who spoke with a lisp and a forked tongue full of sass. A kid who he hated with the blackest of feelings.

Eridan pushed the button and buried his mind. 

As the smooth metal doors slid open, Eridan was faced first and foremost with a mass of pink. Biowires tangled all across the floor, curling and twisting toward the center and plugged into various ports along the way. He lifted his cape and stepped into the squelching mess, immediately sinking to his ankles in the warm insulating liquid that pooled across the floor, and tried not to wrinkle his nose at it. Lightly pushing the worm-like biowires aside, he stepped closer to the center, where a red and blue current pulsed in a jerking, broken fashion, like a sudden shiver occasionally racing along the column before it was absorbed into the various wires. 

Two more steps, and he would be in front of the helmsman. 

One, Eridan focused on the sound of his breath. 

Two, he blinked, and Sollux was there. 

The first thing that struck him was the look of pure agony on Sollux’s face. His mouth was wrenched open, and mustard yellow blood coated his fangs and dipped from his mouth and nose, but he was entirely silent, not even the sound of his breathing could be heard. Eridan might’ve been convinced he were dead, if not for the heaving of his chest in his ribcage. His eyes were covered with goggles upon which were Feferi’s bright fuchsia sign, but Eridan was sure they could not be open, seeing how Sollux had not moved upon his arrival, until his red and blue psionics burst across his skin, wrenching him out and forward as his arms and legs remained trapped, twirled in wires both above and below. As his back tore away from the column of pink, Eridan saw the wires that plugged into Sollux’s spine and the base of his skull. 

He took a step back, feeling ill. 

“Eridan?” a voice rasped, all too familiar, but so terribly broken.

Oh. So his eyes were open. 

“Sol I-“ Eridan’s throat was dry. Why had he never seen him like this? Why hadn’t he gone in the first time with Feferi and witnessed it all? All hints of black feelings he’d ever had for Sollux vanished, and all he was left with was

Pity.

He wanted nothing more than to tear Sollux away from it all, to run and never look back, to see color return to his cheeks and to blast a hole through anyone who tried to bring him harm, including Her. 

His last hopes for Feferi shriveled up in his rage, and turned to empty nothing.

“Eridan are you...crying?” Sollux asked, and Eridan numbly raised a hand to his cheek, and realized he was.

”Sol, I’m going to get you out of here,” Eridan said stubbornly, and his hands moved without his mind really telling them to at all, reaching for the wires and trying to pull them aside.

“Wait, Eridan wait!” Sollux shouted in desperate shock, and then coughed, the effort undoubtedly tearing at his ruined vocal cords. “What about FF- I- I mean Feferi?” He said, quickly correcting his old nickname.

”I don’t care what she thinks,” Eridan snapped, and even without seeing Sollux’s eyes he can tell they’d gone wide. “I don’t care. I’m done letting her drag me around, and play with my heart until she decides to throw it aside. I don’t even hate her in that way I just- I don’t care anymore.”

Sollux fell silent, and Eridan was twisting out one of the biowires plugged into his back with shaking hands when he spoke up again. “She’ll come after us.”

”I know.” 

“So then, why are you doing this?” Sollux asked softly.

“Because I’m done with her,” Eridan replied, his hands still shaking as his pulled out the last plugged in biowire, and Sollux hung more limp than before.

“You could just leave without me if you wanted to defect, and she might even let you go.” Sollux retorted logically, but there was no malice behind it. It sounded more like he wished Eridan would leave him there, would save himself. 

Eridan’s eyes slowly shifted to that of his old friend, and he pushed the goggles off of Sollux’s face and up into his hair, where they bumped against his four pointed horns. He stared into them, as if he could communicate all that he realized in nothing more than an endless stare, falling into Sollux’s eyes and hiding there forever, away from everything. 

“Because I-“

He had to be the one to say it this time, to make it real. But he couldn’t say it yet. He broke his gaze, and worked on untangling the wires that held Sollux’s arms and legs, ignoring the wounded and confused eyes that followed him. 

When he finally tore the wires away, Sollux collapsed to his knees, his body too weak to hold him. Eridan fell as well, forgetting the thick liquid and his delicate cape. They didn’t matter now. 

“Are you...?” He asked tentatively, tilted his head to try and see Sollux’s face. 

“I feel like shit,” Sollux replied honestly, “but I’ll be okay when we’re out of here.”

Eridan nodded, and reached out a hand to him. “Right, we should go, here, lean against me.”

Sollux looked up at him, eyebrows furrowed together. “You’ve changed Eridan. You’re...sadder now. Why are you saving me?” 

“Because I love you,” he whispered, instantly desperate to take those words back.

”What?” Sollux breathed, eyes wide in shock, and against his mind’s most desperate cries, Eridan said it again.

”Sollux Captor, I love you. I pity you more than words can describe and I know I was an asshole in the past but right now I want you to be safe and away from this more than I’ve ever wanted anything. Kar’s jaw would probably be on the floor.” He said, mumbling the last part in his embarrassment.

”Yeah, you were a dick,” Sollux said, and Eridan’s heart ached as he knew it to be true. “But so was I. So hey, how about the two of us make out and make up yeah?”

It was now Eridan’s turn to be the one in shock. Sollux’s mouth was dripping with blood, he was shaking all over, and the pair of them were up to their knees in biowires. But Sollux’s first thought was that they should kiss?! 

“You’re a moron,” Eridan groaned, and Sollux grinned, some life returning to his mismatched eyes. 

“Yup. But so are you, so fucking kiss me already.”

Eridan didn’t need to be told a third time. 

Kissing Sollux Captor was absolutely nothing like kissing Feferi Peixes. It had none of the same softness and it didn’t make him melt away in joy, but it felt so much more there. Sure, his lips were dry and he tasted of blood and their mouths didn’t fit quite right, but that didn’t matter. It didn’t matter that Sollux’s bony elbows poked him the side or his rings scraped against Sollux’s horns as he tried to get his hands in his hair, because it was _real_. It made him feel grounded, like his mind had finally stopped wandering through the past and looking for a soul that had been lost along the way. 

They’d have to leave soon, to run and hide from the empress, the Peixes who once was their friend, but for just one moment, Eridan could feel true hope again.

And Eridan Ampora had everything he’d ever needed.


End file.
